What is UI Design (User Interface Design)
UI (User Interface) Designers craft the visual look and structure of the interfaces that user manipulate. A UI Designer makes decisions about the tone of the visual style, the layout of the page, and content hierarchy. They work with clients to provide a pleasing and rewarding visual experience that a client’s users will like.
What is UX Design (User Experience Design)
UX Designers work with companies to build sites and apps that solve real world problems and achieve real world goals. On a day-to-day basis, you’ll find that clients will come to you with a fairly specific goal. They might want to communicate something to their customers. They might have a novel app with new features that they want designed. They may be a restaurant that needs to be able to take online orders. Your clients or employers will have many different needs and goals. You job is to solve those problems and create the interface that implements that solution.
Given that you will need to solve business problems, a UX Designer’s main concern will be to provide the best experience for the people who are using the interfaces that are created. A UX Designer is tasked with thinking through the needs of users and providing them with the tools and options to quickly and easily achieve their goals.
How do these disciplines interact?
UI and UX are related fields of expertise that work together to provide a rewarding visual and interactive experience. While UI Design is concerned with implementing interfaced decisions in a visually pleasing and cohesive experience for users, UX Design is concerned with designing the content and tasks that a user will take to achieve their goals.
What tasks are common for UI Designers?
- Drawing Thumbnails
- Communicating Design Solutions to Clients
- Interpreting Style Guides and Brand Guides
- Designing Interface elements like buttons, text areas and imagery
- Writing HTML, CSS, and some JavaScript
- Designing animations, transitions and visual states.
* Not a comprehensive list.
What tasks are common for UX Designers?
- Interpreting the needs of Users
- Aligning features with user needs and goals
- Aligning functionality with business goals and objectives
- Designing task flow
- Designing content hierarchy and site architecture
- Designing wireframes
- Conducting research into users actions and behaviors
- Solving complex business problems with software solutions
- Communication with clients about strategy and design solution
* Not a comprehensive list.